The food is truly some of the best in Santa Cruz, and the outdoor garden is lovely—but the service was seriously lacking. Our waiter took a while just to bring water and disappeared after our food was served. He never checked in, and we had to flag him down multiple times to ask for more drinks. Some of the items we asked for never came.
It was a chilly evening, and our waiter told us the heaters weren’t working—only to see him give one to a couple who arrived well after our group. We had also let the restaurant know we were celebrating a birthday, but he never offered a dessert/coffee menu, even though other tables were served birthday desserts.
Other staff seemed friendly and more attentive, so maybe we just got extremely unlucky. But for the prices they charge, the service was a major letdown and put a damper on our celebration - especially since we had been looking forward to our dinner here.
Scott
Excellent choice of food and laid back environments. Carbanara and fried chicken - A+. Everything our table had was amazing!
Vidya Phalke
Wonderful service and food. Have been there several times. Make reservations on weekends …
Gilbert Vendryes
The BEST!
Alex D
Came here for Mother’s Day. Had an absolutely amazing experience. The staff was extremely friendly (huge shout out to Lucy!!) and the food was even better then I had expected. Cauliflower was amazing as well as the beef cheeks. Thank you guys for an amazing night!
Robert Baldacci
Great experience! Loved the back patio
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Osso Bucco
Paul
We were looking forward to our first visit and had a reservation for an early dinner last night, a Saturday night at 5:45. The food was absolutely scrumptious and we enjoyed every morsel. The service was absolutely horrible, especially at this price point. Upon arriving we were quickly seated and given menus and then forgotten. It seemed like forever before we were able to order drinks, and still no water. Finally after ordering our meal our drinks came. From then on it was catch as catch can with our waiter for drink refills, napkins, etc. It wasn’t that busy but perhaps they had a short staff. We’ll try again another time.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 1
Benjamin Bosquet
TLDR; This was a good meal! Not amazing, but really solid.
First the pros: Great service, seated right away and checked on several times to make sure we were all set. The portions are copious for a restaurant seen as haute cuisine. Two entrees and an appetizer is plenty, or even two appetizers and a shared entree. The mushroon radiatore was the highlight. The pasta was perfectly cooked and the mushrooms and potatoes delicious with it.
Next some of the mid points: The restaurant inside is Home-y as the name suggests and cute. But it was a bit hard to hear each other with slightly longer tables and settings relatively close to others. The Burrata was good, but slightly too oiled. The chicken is down right juicy! But if you order it, you may want to order a salad or something else with it. Its almost entirely just chicken!
The one con has to do with one of the dishes: I ordered the steak tartare with some hopeful expectations. Mind you, I am half french and lived in France during my childhood, so hopefully this doesn't come off as too snobbish. The tartare flavor was great but unfortunately the meat is ground and not chopped. This affects both the texture (mushy) and hygiene of the dish. Ground meat is inherently less hygienic because, while the meat may be fresh, there is no guarantee that the grinder doesn't have bacteria growing in any cracks or crevices. Its exactly why tartare is normally chopped. If the tartare had been chopped this would be a 5 star review.
Thank you overall for a good dinner.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
Jake Byman
Great meal here – we got the osso bucco, the chicken liver, and the ricotta gnocchi, which was more than enough food for us. Everything was very high quality – our favorite was for sure the chicken liver. If I had one critique, I'd say that each dish had a lot going on, and I would have preferred things to be a bit simpler. But overall everything was quite good!
Lisa Crain
Greeted immediately upon entering Home and seated (we had a reservation) Other than the initial greeting and being seated our service was non existent. Over a 10 minute wait to be offered water. Throughout our entire dining experience never again were we checked for re-fills, or anything else we may need. My request for Parmesan was forgotten until we were waiting for our bill, food was eaten, & bill ( that we had to ask for) was on the table. Staff were all friendly, just not available. It was an early Saturday night with plenty of staff and restaurant not busy. Our meal had no alcohol, & no desserts. We don’t mind paying $165 for 1 appetizer, 2 salads and an entree each, but at those prices, service needed to be spot on. This was my & my finance’s anniversary choice of restaurants to try. First visit to Home. We will not be returning. Being in the hospitality business myself, having a business in town, & seeing the menu that is almost non existent of vegetarian/vegan options, the lack of customer service, too many other restaurants to choose a better experience next time.
Vegetarian options: Terrible. Not any where near enough choices.
Wonderful food, service and atmosphere. Really incredible food—Cal cuisine/Italian influences. Excellent attention to detail. Many vegetarian options.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Tom Muntzenberger
Just left a fantastic meal at HOME. Sat outside in their beautiful backyard/patio. Enjoyed their homemade focaccia, herb butter, oysters with watermelon shaved ice and caviar, and their Squid ink pasta with pork belly and Manila clams. Every bit was superb. Service could not have been better. I didn’t try it but my coworker very much enjoyed the Lasagnette pasta bolognese. Thanks HOME for a great meal!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Michael De Anda Muñiz
Every dish was fantastic. Oysters were delicious. Focaccia was so good. The pasta was fresh and cooked perfectly. The sauce was some of the best I’ve had.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Keith F
I made reservations on the Resy app and I wanted an appointment at 6:30. The only time I could select was 7:00pm or later on a Monday. At 7:00pm there was one table with two people and there was no one else in the main seating area till 7:30pm.. it was odd. The halbut had no flavor. I don't think the beef cheeks were beef cheeks, we've had them before. I think it was just a standard piece of beef chuck cooked in the oven. The Chicken Liver Pate was ok. The squid ink online menu said squid ink spaghetti and I always wanted to try squid ink spaghetti. While ordering food I saw on the menu it was not spaghetti, it said orrechietta? I ordered it anyway and I was disappointment. Although the pork belly in the dish was good. Maybe some of the other food choices might be good, but I won’t be recommending this place to people. I’ll try a different place next time.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Pate
Arwed Niestroj
Amazing laid back, yet high quality jewel in Santa Cruz. Loved the local food, great service in a welcoming ambiance. Will be back for sure.
The food is truly some of the best in Santa Cruz, and the outdoor garden is lovely—but the service was seriously lacking. Our waiter took a while just to bring water and disappeared after our food was served. He never checked in, and we had to flag him down multiple times to ask for more drinks. Some of the items we asked for never came.
It was a chilly evening, and our waiter told us the heaters weren’t working—only to see him give one to a couple who arrived well after our group. We had also let the restaurant know we were celebrating a birthday, but he never offered a dessert/coffee menu, even though other tables were served birthday desserts.
Other staff seemed friendly and more attentive, so maybe we just got extremely unlucky. But for the prices they charge, the service was a major letdown and put a damper on our celebration - especially since we had been looking forward to our dinner here.
Excellent choice of food and laid back environments. Carbanara and fried chicken - A+. Everything our table had was amazing!
Wonderful service and food. Have been there several times. Make reservations on weekends …
The BEST!
Came here for Mother’s Day. Had an absolutely amazing experience. The staff was extremely friendly (huge shout out to Lucy!!) and the food was even better then I had expected. Cauliflower was amazing as well as the beef cheeks. Thank you guys for an amazing night!
Great experience! Loved the back patio
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Osso Bucco
We were looking forward to our first visit and had a reservation for an early dinner last night, a Saturday night at 5:45. The food was absolutely scrumptious and we enjoyed every morsel. The service was absolutely horrible, especially at this price point. Upon arriving we were quickly seated and given menus and then forgotten. It seemed like forever before we were able to order drinks, and still no water. Finally after ordering our meal our drinks came. From then on it was catch as catch can with our waiter for drink refills, napkins, etc. It wasn’t that busy but perhaps they had a short staff. We’ll try again another time.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 1
TLDR; This was a good meal! Not amazing, but really solid.
First the pros:
Great service, seated right away and checked on several times to make sure we were all set.
The portions are copious for a restaurant seen as haute cuisine. Two entrees and an appetizer is plenty, or even two appetizers and a shared entree.
The mushroon radiatore was the highlight. The pasta was perfectly cooked and the mushrooms and potatoes delicious with it.
Next some of the mid points:
The restaurant inside is Home-y as the name suggests and cute. But it was a bit hard to hear each other with slightly longer tables and settings relatively close to others.
The Burrata was good, but slightly too oiled.
The chicken is down right juicy! But if you order it, you may want to order a salad or something else with it. Its almost entirely just chicken!
The one con has to do with one of the dishes:
I ordered the steak tartare with some hopeful expectations. Mind you, I am half french and lived in France during my childhood, so hopefully this doesn't come off as too snobbish.
The tartare flavor was great but unfortunately the meat is ground and not chopped. This affects both the texture (mushy) and hygiene of the dish. Ground meat is inherently less hygienic because, while the meat may be fresh, there is no guarantee that the grinder doesn't have bacteria growing in any cracks or crevices. Its exactly why tartare is normally chopped.
If the tartare had been chopped this would be a 5 star review.
Thank you overall for a good dinner.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
Great meal here – we got the osso bucco, the chicken liver, and the ricotta gnocchi, which was more than enough food for us. Everything was very high quality – our favorite was for sure the chicken liver. If I had one critique, I'd say that each dish had a lot going on, and I would have preferred things to be a bit simpler. But overall everything was quite good!
Greeted immediately upon entering Home and seated (we had a reservation) Other than the initial greeting and being seated our service was non existent.
Over a 10 minute wait to be offered water.
Throughout our entire dining experience never again were we checked for re-fills, or anything else we may need.
My request for Parmesan was forgotten until we were waiting for our bill, food was eaten, & bill ( that we had to ask for) was on the table.
Staff were all friendly, just not available. It was an early Saturday night with plenty of staff and restaurant not busy.
Our meal had no alcohol, & no desserts. We don’t mind paying $165 for 1 appetizer, 2 salads and an entree each, but at those prices, service needed to be spot on. This was my & my finance’s anniversary choice of restaurants to try. First visit to Home.
We will not be returning. Being in the hospitality business myself, having a business in town, & seeing the menu that is almost non existent of vegetarian/vegan options, the lack of customer service, too many other restaurants to choose a better experience next time.
Vegetarian options: Terrible. Not any where near enough choices.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 1
Restaurantji Recommends
Wonderful food, service and atmosphere. Really incredible food—Cal cuisine/Italian influences. Excellent attention to detail. Many vegetarian options.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Just left a fantastic meal at HOME. Sat outside in their beautiful backyard/patio. Enjoyed their homemade focaccia, herb butter, oysters with watermelon shaved ice and caviar, and their Squid ink pasta with pork belly and Manila clams. Every bit was superb. Service could not have been better. I didn’t try it but my coworker very much enjoyed the Lasagnette pasta bolognese. Thanks HOME for a great meal!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Every dish was fantastic. Oysters were delicious. Focaccia was so good. The pasta was fresh and cooked perfectly. The sauce was some of the best I’ve had.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I made reservations on the Resy app and I wanted an appointment at 6:30. The only time I could select was 7:00pm or later on a Monday. At 7:00pm there was one table with two people and there was no one else in the main seating area till 7:30pm.. it was odd. The halbut had no flavor. I don't think the beef cheeks were beef cheeks, we've had them before. I think it was just a standard piece of beef chuck cooked in the oven. The Chicken Liver Pate was ok. The squid ink online menu said squid ink spaghetti and I always wanted to try squid ink spaghetti. While ordering food I saw on the menu it was not spaghetti, it said orrechietta? I ordered it anyway and I was disappointment. Although the pork belly in the dish was good. Maybe some of the other food choices might be good, but I won’t be recommending this place to people. I’ll try a different place next time.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Pate
Amazing laid back, yet high quality jewel in Santa Cruz. Loved the local food, great service in a welcoming ambiance. Will be back for sure.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Loading...